Sidenote: Just A Thought

Every generation has a time period in Hip Hop that they refer to as "the golden age." Sure, most people refer to "the golden age" as the mid to late 80s with Eric B. and Rakim, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, and a slew of other dope MCs. But for me, there was nothing like the early to mid 2000s when Roc-A-Fella was really killin' it, with Just Blaze and Kanye working behind the boards. There was a slew of Roc-affiliated artists who benefitted from great production, like Freeway, Young Gunz, Beanie Sigel, and even Memphis Bleek had some hot songs (check out "Like That," and "Is That Your Chick" if you don't believe me). But the group that benefitted most from the Roc-A-Fella co-sign was The Diplomats, who today are generally referred to as Dipset. I used to love Dipset back in the day. Diplomatic Immunity was my shit, I'd bump that 24/7. There were so many classic cuts, and it was amazing to turn on BET (haha, yeah I know) and see the video for "Dipset Anthem," which was pretty epic. Even years later, "I Really Mean It" is still one of my favorite songs ever.

However, when news broke a few months ago that Dipset was getting back together, I actually wasn't too optimistic about it. It's been a while since I heard a Dipset affiliated song that I thought was hot. And I'm not talkin', "oh yeah, this is pretty cool," I'm talkin', "wow, this is fire." I guess the thing that worried me the most about a Dipset reunion wasn't whether or not the chemistry was still there, but if these guys still had an ear for great production. Back in the day, The Heatmakerz, Just Blaze, and Kanye would hook them up with some gems, but lately, the majority of songs I hear just sound like throwaway mixtape tracks. No disrespect to Araab Musik, but he is not even close to being on the same level that those guys were circa 2003, and he's clearly in a different league by today's standards. However, this morning when I logged onto nahright.com, I saw a pic of Jim Jones, Cam, and Juelz standing in the studio with Dr. Dre. "The Capo," a.k.a. Jim Jones had posted it on his twitter, along with the caption "Just finished our 1rst session with Dr Dre incredible." Upon seeing this, I thought maybe things will truly be different this time around. As opposed to being cheap, and working with a bunch of bootleg mixtape producers, maybe they'll actually go out and get the production that they deserve. There are few albums I'd like to see more than a new Dipset joint, if it's done right. There's no reason why they shouldn't reach out to work with great producers. Feel free to comment on this if you like, but I just had to get that off of my chest.